Burning Slowly

Chapter 19

Stiles wanted to strangle Allison. You did not leave a man behind, that's not how things were done. She'd broken guy code. She wasn't a guy, but if they were going to build forts she'd have to swear into the fraternity. That probably meant he had to swear in on the girl code, but he had no idea what that would mean. He'd have to braid her hair or something. He was about to chase after her when a warm hand tapped him on his bare shoulder. He spun around, licked his lips nervously and looked straight into the eyes of the blonde guy with the enigmatic smile who he'd shared beers around the bonfire with.

"Hey... you." He sounded lame, but he couldn't remember the guy's name.

The blonde smirked at him. Stiles couldn't help but grin a little bit. That smile was contagious.

"You ran off pretty quick last night, right when things were getting good."

Stiles licked his lips again. The guy stepped into his personal space. People all around him were jostling them; the dance floor was treacherous and conspiring against him. Someone bumped into him. He fell forward into the blonde who put his hands on Stiles's hips to steady him. Or to you know; get a freebie grope in, one or the other.

"I-I had to go." Stiles wasn't sure what else to say. He wondered if they made a hallmark card to thank someone for getting you drunk and then trying to kiss you. It'd probably sell really well on college campuses.

"I figured that was the case when you left suddenly."

The music seemed to be getting louder. In order to hear each other they had to get practically cheek to cheek. They weren't making eye contact, had to yell into each other's ears to be heard.

Little puffs of hot breath tickled his ear and neck. Stiles put his hands on the guy's wrists, because the blonde was still holding onto his hips. He got pushed again needed to steady himself. More bodies pressed in closer, started to move and sway around them.

Stiles wasn't sure how it happened but they were sort of either dancing with each other or the dude was trying to smother him. He thought the blonde was like a freaking spider-monkey the way he clung to him, or possibly an octopus because the he had too many hands and they were everywhere, including on his junk at one point.

Stiles emitted a high pitched squeak at the grope. It got swallowed up by the booming music. He backed away from the guy abruptly and pantomimed wanting to get a drink out of a bottle of water. The way the guy leered at him made Stiles think that he misinterpreted though. That was odd; he was the bomb at charades.

Stiles made his way off the dance floor, headed towards the wall where the entrance to the building was. He wanted to be able to see Allison when she came back in. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He slapped away one of the spider-monkey's tentacles with one hand as he unlocked his phone. He had a message from Lydia. His mouth dropped open when he read it.

It said, 'Wves! ChaSing Alison, gt ot!1111!'

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Lydia normally had excellent texting skills. He dodged away from another grasping appendage and walked towards the door. Pain blossomed in his face, for some reason he was suddenly on his ass and seeing stars.

"What the fuck?" Stiles could barely think. He shook his head to try to clear it. He glanced up and realized someone had thrown the door open right into his face. A blur of white and green rocketed through the crowd. A green glow-in-the-dark bow fell to the ground in front of him.

"Allison?" Stiles tried to call after the form, but it was quickly lost in a sea of people. He climbed unsteadily to his feet as the door was swinging closed. He took a few steps back from it. He didn't trust it since it had betrayed him once.